Providing advocacy support

There are a variety of ways health professionals can support the advocacy needs of refugees. For example they can:

• Appoint additional staff, for example a health visitor, to support the access needs of refugees to health services. PMS pilots have allowed some health providers to develop specialist multi-disciplinary teams which provide a range of services to support access, including outreach, drop-in centres and nurse-led clinics
• Link refugees to a patient advocate where available
• Develop links with RCOs. RCOs can offer much needed support to newly arrived refugees in their community, linking them to services. The role of refugee community organisations area of this website gives information about this
• Employ specialist health visitors for refugees, who facilitate GP and dentist registration.